Kant's criticisms of the ontological argument

Overview

Recall questions on analytic and synthetic statements, Kant's objection that existence is not a predicate, the hundred thalers, why denying that God exists involves no contradiction, Kant on necessity, how a defender of Anselm might reply, and whether a priori argument is more persuasive than a posteriori.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Distinguish analytic from synthetic statements.

   Model answer

   An analytic statement is true or false purely in virtue of the meanings of its terms, so that the predicate is already contained in the subject, as with the claim that all bachelors are unmarried. A synthetic statement adds information not contained in the subject and has to be checked against the world. The ontological argument is an attempt to show that God's existence is analytic, which is exactly what its critics deny.

2. 2

   How does the ontological argument differ in kind from arguments based on observation?

   Model answer

   It needs no evidence at all, only the concept of God. It claims that once you understand what the word God means, denying that such a being exists involves you in a contradiction, in the way that denying a triangle has three sides does. Nothing that could be discovered about the universe would count for or against it, and if it worked it would give certainty rather than probability.

3. 3

   Explain Kant's objection that existence is not a predicate.

   Model answer

   Kant argues that saying something exists does not describe it. A real predicate adds to our concept of a thing, telling us something more about what it is like; but when we say that a thing exists we add nothing to the concept, we merely assert that something answers to it. Existence is therefore not a property a thing can have or lack, and cannot be one of the perfections that makes a being great.

4. 4

   How does Kant's example of the hundred thalers make his point?

   Model answer

   A hundred real coins contain not one penny more than a hundred merely possible coins: the concept is identical in both cases, since otherwise the money in your pocket would not be the money you had thought of. What differs is not the content of the concept but whether anything corresponds to it, which makes a great deal of difference to your finances and none at all to your idea. So existence adds nothing to a concept.

5. 5

   On Kant's account, what is the word is doing in the sentence God exists?

   Model answer

   It is not attributing a quality but positing the subject: it says that there is something to which the concept applies. Grammatically existence looks like an ordinary predicate, which is what misleads us, but logically it functions quite differently. Later logicians reinforced the point by treating existence as a statement about whether a concept has any instances rather than as a description of an individual.

6. 6

   Why does Kant say there is no contradiction in denying that God exists?

   Model answer

   A contradiction arises when you accept a subject and then reject a predicate that belongs to it, as in accepting that something is a triangle while denying it has three angles. But if you reject the subject altogether there is nothing left to contradict: rejecting the whole idea of a supremely perfect being together with its existence leaves no inconsistency. So the atheist is not committed to a self-contradiction, only to the view that nothing answers to the concept.

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